Lay-off

The number of working hours in your employment contract determines whether your employment relationship is full-time or part-time. If the working hours agreed in your employment contract are over 80% of the maximum working hours of a full-time employee, the work is considered full-time. If you have been laid off from full-time work, you can get full daily allowances for full days of lay-off. 

If you have been laid off from full-time work by reducing your working hours, payment of earnings-related allowance depends on the way in which your working hours have been reduced.  

Reduced working weeks

If an application period contains full working hours and lay-off days, this is a reduced working week. Then daily allowances are paid in full for full lay-off days. You are not entitled to daily allowances for full working days and wages earned for these days are not taken into account in the adjustment. 

Reduced working days

If you work reduced working days during a lay-off period, this is a reduced working day. Then wage income paid during the application period is adjusted.  

Reviewing of working hours

If you are laid off from full-time work, your working hours are reviewed in periods of full calendar weeks. This is why applications must be completed up to the Sunday of the week in which your wage payment period ends. If working hours in a particular week are over 80% of the maximum working hours of a full-time employee, earnings-related days cannot be paid for that week. Earnings-related unemployment benefit also cannot be paid for annual holiday periods earned from full-time work. 

Maximum number of allowance days

Under the Act, the maximum number of allowance days is five days a week. Full working days reduce the number of days paid. Because full daily allowances are paid for full working days, wage income for those days is not taken into account. 

Example

You have been laid off for five full weekdays and worked two full working days at the weekend. Daily allowances can be paid for a maximum of three lay-off days, and two lay-off days are rejected on the basis of the number of allowance days. 

Earnings-related allowance is paid adjusted by your wages in situations where the number of hours in the working days in the application period varies. The adjustment takes into account the wages earned in the application period or wages paid in the application period, depending on the nature of the lay-off. 

Work where the contractual minimum working hours do not exceed 80% of the maximum working hours of a full-time employee is considered part-time work.  

Part-time workers’ wage income is always adjusted on a payment basis. Daily allowances are affected by the wages paid during the adjustment period. For this reason, if you are laid off from part-time work the amount of your daily allowances is also affected by the wages you earned before being laid off, if these are paid during the adjustment period. 

Example 

If your lay-off starts on 1.5.2021 and your wages for April are paid on 15.5.2021, this affects the amount of your daily allowances in May. In other words, you get adjusted daily allowances for May even if you are fully laid-off. So it is advisable to remain a jobseeker even after your lay-off ends because in part-time work you are entitled to daily allowances even if you’re not laid off. 

Reviewing of working hours

For part-time workers and those laid off from part-time work, working hours are reviewed in accordance with the adjustment period. The adjustment period is either one month or four weeks and is determined according to your wage payment period. If the number of working hours paid on the payment day exceeds 80% of the maximum working hours of a full-time employee, you are not entitled to adjusted allowance for that application period. The working hours review also takes into account paid annual holiday and sick leave periods. 

Annual holiday, holiday pay and holiday bonuses can reduce your daily allowances. The effect of these depends on whether your holiday and related payments have accrued from full-time or part-time work. Also, the payment date of holiday pay and holiday bonuses matters since they affect the daily allowances of part-time workers according to your wage payment date.  

Annual holiday and lay-off from full-time work

If you have been laid off from full-time work, earnings-related allowance cannot be paid for annual holiday periods.Holiday bonuses and holiday pay do not affect the amount of your daily allowances even if the payment date is during the lay-off period. Work where the contractual working hours exceed 80% of the maximum working hours of a full-time employee is classed as full-time work. 

Annual holiday and lay-off from part-time work

You can apply for earnings-related allowance for periods of holiday earned from part-time work if you are registered as a jobseeker with the employment authority. Find more information about part-time work and annual holidays here.